For An Economy Driven By Compassion

The coronavirus crisis is a chance for business to focus on bottom-up growth and rejig economic policies for the benefit of all

- Arun Maira

The fear of the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility, as well as the scale, of the bottom of India’s economic pyramid. Ninety per cent of Indian workers are engaged in precarious employment, as contract workers, part-time workers, casual labourers, domestic workers, etc. They have no security of incomes. The lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of the contagion has disrupted supply chains. It has also shut off the incomes of hundreds of millions of Indian citizens. Many are in a precarious position. Even when essential needs become available in their communities with a partial opening of the lockdown, they will not have the money to pay for what they need.

It is essential that supply chains be opened up soon to deliver essentials to communities. It is also very important that channels be opened up to put money into the hands of, or into the bank accounts of people. The time has come for a ‘direct cash transfer’ on a large scale. Many economists have advocated this as the best way to provide benefits to the bottom of the pyramid, rather than through leaky government-managed supply chains for subsidised food, etc. Fortunately, India has been able to create money transfer systems to the bottom with the use of digital technology, by the opening of Jan Dhan bank accounts, digital payments platforms, etc. This is the time to use them.

The big question is, where will the money come from, to flow to the people down these channels?

Business responsibility